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Underwriters are the focal point for putting the assets of insurers at risk. Decisions made by underwriters immediately affect the top line revenue and distributor relationships, and ultimately affect the bottom line of profitability. In the current market, underwriters must be able to quantify previously unknown exposures, scrutinize existing coverages, and introduce new products quickly into a dynamic market. All of this is on top of core requirements for risk selection and pricing.

Seminar Topics

8:00 – 8:30: Registration and Coffee

8:30	Welcome: Patrick Vice Insurance-Canada.ca
	Enterprise Product Management - Chris Hoar, Camilion Solutions.
Chris will speak to the lessons that can be learned from the successful implementation of Enterprise Product Management (EPM) processes. Numerous benefits arise when products are customized using EPM solutions, which enable insurers to better create, market and deliver products for specific markets to meet the needs of a rapidly-changing world. Issues arising from the legacy of inflexible, situation-specific line-of-business systems will be dissected, in the light of more flexible and easily-integrated EPM solutions that are beginning to penetrate the industry.
	Automated Decision Support and Credit Scoring - Barb Addie, Baron Insurance Service Inc.
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	Rate-Making Using Predictive Modeling - Michael Turney, and Jim Godfrey, SAS.
An important problem in actuarial science concerns rate setting or the pricing of each policy. The goal is to set rates that reflect the risk level of the policyholder by establishing the "break even" rate (premium) for the policy. The lower the risk, the lower the rate. The critical question in rate making is the following: "What are the risk factors or variables that are important for predicting the likelihood of claims and the size of a claim?" For example, in the automobile insurance industry, a significant, positive correlation exists between the likelihood of a claim and the policyholder's closeness to a large urban area. Actuaries might use this knowledge to specify automobile rates by postal codes for a given policyholder profile. As a result, a 30-year old male having one ticket in the past three years is likely to pay a higher rate if he lived and drove in a large urban area. Similarly, in the health insurance industry smokers typically pay higher health premiums. Some insurance companies make further distinctions between perceived health risks of certain behaviours such as the insured’s use of tobacco products. Although many risk factors that affect rates are obvious, subtle and non-intuitive relationships can exist among variables that are difficult if not impossible to identify without applying more sophisticated analyses. Modern data mining models can more accurately predict risk, therefore insurance companies can set rates more accurately, which in turn results in lower costs and greater profits.
	Standards in Practice: Portal Quotes, Property Inspections and Risk Management Applications. - Mike Hornick, Insurance Systems Inc.
Insurance carriers are seeing underwriting value from implementation of Standards using legacy systems, through the use of new technologies. Carriers who had resisted providing on-line quotes because of limited support from back end systems, are taking advantage of the CSIO portal's capabilities by outsourcing the actual on-line rating function. ISI is the CSIO approved provider of this service and will share the experiences of several insurers who are live now supporting initial field rating and quoting. In addition, ISI is working with an insurer to capture needed inspection information, standardizing a manual, paper intensive process, through the use of its field technologies. Additionally, ISI is working with a leading risk manager to analyze the use of claims data both in the risk management field and in support for renewal processing. This presentation will rely on real-life examples, highlighting the strengths and challenges off putting standards into practice.
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	Standards for Real World Underwriters - Ronald Dudley, ACORD.
Data standards are becoming increasingly prevalent in many aspects of insurance underwriting. Companies are realizing that by implementing standards for interaction with trading partners, initial investments can be leveraged to access new or previously untapped data sources. In addition, customers, such as risk managers, as well as distributors are increasingly demanding that carriers and others supply increasing amounts of data in a standardized fashion. Finally, increasing demands for data in a hardening market are best satisfied with working standards. ACORD has been the pre-eminent forum for developing standards and implementation guides. Mr. Dudley, as executive responsible for Standards, will share his experience with leading underwriters who are realizing benefits from implementing standards.
11:45	Close: by Patrick Vice Insurance-Canada.ca

Seminar Sponsors:

		Camilion Solutions, Inc. is the leading provider of Enterprise Product Management solutions for the insurance industry, enabling insurance companies to quickly and efficiently launch new products into target market segments and manage the increasing complexity and proliferation of product features across multiple channels, without having to replace existing legacy systems
		SAS software and services deliver the most important commodity in today's business world — The Power to Know® — enabling insurance companies to transform data into a healthier bottom line.

Speaker Information

Barb Addie, President & Actuary, Baron Insurance Service Inc.

Barb joined the P&C insurance industry in 1979. She has held management portfolios of increasing responsibility culminating in her appointment as President and CEO of a large P&C insurance group that included two insurance companies and two independent brokerages. She has extensive experience in the development and implementation of effective corporate strategies relating to distribution, customer segmentation, pricing, product development and marketing. She has bought and sold both insurance companies and brokerages, established direct response call centre operations, and managed the implementation of Information Technology systems. She has expertise in developing effective reinsurance programs, alternative funding mechanisms, and commercial rating structures. She is the Appointed Actuary for a number of companies.

Barb holds a Bachelor of Mathematics (Honours, Co-op) degree from the University of Waterloo and is a Fellow of both the Casualty Actuarial Society and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries.

Ronald Dudley, Vice President, Standards, ACORD.

Ron has over 34 years of experience in information technology, 28 of which were spent in the insurance industry. His responsibilities at ACORD focus on the development and management of the organization's insurance standards. Ron has been involved in the industry standards setting process for over twelve years through participation on the ANSI ASC X12 Committee for EDI. He has held several positions with the ANSI X12 organization including co-chair of the Property & Casualty Task Group.

Jim Godfrey M.Sc., B.Sc. Senior Technical Consultant, SAS.

Jim is a Data Mining Consultant at SAS (Canada). Jim's responsibilities cover all aspects of providing effective data mining solutions to SAS customers, particularly in the financial services sector. Prior to joining SAS, Jim was a Research Analyst at BMO Bank of Montreal where his main roles included marketing database construction/validation, campaign management/analysis and building acquisition, cross-sell and up-sell models for the bank's credit card products. Jim also has experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, where he focused on marketing resource optimization. He is a graduate of the University of Guelph.

Chris Hoar, President, Camilion

Chris is responsible for directing the firm's vision and product strategy and overseeing its continued growth and expansion. He brings over 20 years experience selling and marketing technology solutions to the insurance industry.

Prior to joining Camilion, Chris was Vice President of Sales & Client Relations at DWL where he was instrumental in driving the company's triple-digit growth. Chris built DWL's Property & Casualty business from the ground up including identifying new products, markets and the business model necessary for its success. Prior to DWL, he was Senior Vice President of Product Strategy for Solcorp, a leading solutions provider to the financial services industry. Chris also spent over 15 years with IBM as part of their Insurance Services and Solutions team and started his professional life in product development there.

Mike Hornick, Vice President, Insurance Systems Inc.

Insurance Systems Inc. (ISI) is a Canadian Software development company that specializes in developing transactional Web sites for Insurance Companies.

Michael Turney, Program Manager, SAS

Michael is a Program Manager at SAS (Canada), a subsidiary of SAS Institute Inc., where he manages a portfolio of predictive intelligence solutions. In his role, he is responsible for developing and implementing strategic plans for SAS' suite of analytical solutions across a variety of industries including banking, insurance, retail, telecommunications and utilities. Before joining SAS, Michael was a Product Marketing Manager, Integrated Solutions at Ironside Technologies Inc. Prior to that, Michael was Product Manager, Net.Commerce for IBM Canada Limited. Michael holds an Executive Master of Business Administration (Honours) from The University of King's College, as well a Bachelor of Arts, Economics, from Concordia University.

Host and Moderator

Patrick Vice, Vice-President Technology, Cowan.

Patrick has over 20 years experience in the technology and business sectors. He works with clients to successfully define, market, and implement projects and programmers to realize the benefits of existing and emerging technologies. For a more extensive biography.

Patrick will be host of the seminar and will welcome and set the stage, build the linkages between topics, and then provide conclusions and points to ponder at the end of the session.

(Examples will be used throughout)

Questions? call Doug Grant 416-921-7756 or email at doug.grant@insurance-canada.ca

See a list of our Previous Seminars.

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